February 19, 2018 Newsletter

Auburn FMA members on a photo shoot for next year’s Men of FMA Calendar

February 21, 2018

We had a great session with Brad Reback, MD Stifel on Thursday. Great questions from the entire group! Brad’s insight on equity research analysts who are afraid to make a difficult call reminded me of one of my favorite lines from Atlas Shrugged: There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or values exist, who is willing to sit out the course of any battle, willing to cash in on the blood of the innocent or to crawl on his belly to the guilty, who dispenses justice by condemning both the robber and the robbed to jail, who solves conflicts by ordering the thinker and the fool to meet each other halfway.”

Good luck to Emily Kravec, Matt Hultstrand, and Jenny Herrell as they head to Atlanta, GA this Thursday for the UGA Case Competition! You’ll kill it!

Good luck as well to our Fidelity Case Competition Team which includes FMA members Keola Iskandar, Ty Lamar and Joseph McCormick. The team will be presenting in Kennesaw, GA on Saturday. We’re pulling for you!

WHO ARE WE?

From Richmond, Virginia all the way down to the plains, Kathleen Leavitt came to Auburn University simply because she wanted to try something new. “I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. I visited one weekend and knew it was my school. I felt strangely at ease without knowing anyone,” she says. Kathleen’s skill set goes vastly beyond just finance – this senior’s many talents include knitting a scarf in 24 hours, rapping the whole first verse to Tupac’s California Love, saying all of the prepositions in one breath, using a fork with both hands and sleeping like a baby on the NYC subway. While not in class, Kat enjoys baking, dancing, kayaking, scuba diving, and traveling.

Kathleen was drawn to finance because of its versatility, dynamic nature, and countless opportunities. She joined FMA during her freshman year to get a jumpstart on her career. While she was unsure which area of finance was the best fit, Kathleen dug in and started exploring all options. She found a strong mentor in Tracy Richard, and has worked consistently to give back to the organization through involvement, peer mentoring and being an overall source of levity for all! Kathleen completed a sophomore internship in Charlotte, NC for Wells Fargo in their Government and Institutional Banking Group. Her junior internship was in New York City for MUFG as a sales and trading analyst. After graduation, Kathleen plans to move to New York as a corporate fixed income sales and trading analyst for MUFG. She is the only new hire for her team and she cannot wait to start. We know you’ll continue to be Amazing Kat! We already miss you!